AZ Dust Storm And Now This Monstrocity. HELP!!

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asusundevils23

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Apr 18, 2011
27
Tempe, Arizona
My fellow pool owners, I need your help. I recently purchased a new home with an huge inground pool. I'm guessing it's 25k-30k gallons. It has a deep end and the shallow end wraps around to steps and a wading area. The filter is a Triton II sand. I have two motors, one dedicated to the filter and the other to the waterfall (They are relatively old so I'm unable to provide you with hps or manufacturerer information, but they seem to run great).

Approximately 2.5 weeks ago Arizona got hit with a dust storm that made our history books. My family awoke the next day to a thick layer of mud on the pebble tec of our pool. Not being familiar with how to manage such a situation involving a much larger pool than our previous one, I dumped 4 gallons of liquid chlorine and ran the filter non-stop for a week. AFter noticing that the water wasn't getting clear, I purchased a vacuum end to allow me to manually control vacuuming. While I was sucking up the dirt, I would see dirty water emitting from the return valves. After consulting with a couple pool experts, we realized that the sand likely "calcified" both after the storm and while the pool sat idle for 8 months while in foreclosure proceedings. I decided to change the sand last weekend, which was actually a realtively simple process. I now see very little dirt emitting from the return valves so I crossed it out as a culprit candidate. :goodjob:

So here we are today. See pics. I've dumped 2 more gallons of liquid chlorine into the pool, and added muriatic acid to ensure ph balance. It's been 3 days of running my pump for 10+ hours daily and I'm not noticing any progress. My daughter's back to school party is Aug 6th so I need your help.

Thank you so much for helping to guide this misguided soul. :scratch:
 

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If you are really committed to Aug 6 then time is of the essence. It can take awhile for a sand filter to clear an algae filled pool.

Your pool just needs more chlorine. A lot more chlorine. There are instructions on how to properly shock a pool in Pool School. Basically what you are doing now is adding enough chlorine to kill 25% of what's in the pool - and then giving it time to grow back. Chlorine doesn't "stay" in the pool - it gets used up (converts into salt) and the more gunk in the pool the faster it gets used up.

In order to do this right we'll need a full set of test results - especially CYA

FC
CC
CYA
CH
TA
PH

How were you chlorinating the pool before the storm?
 
An accurate pool volume will also be helpful. Your guestimate is has 5000 gallons of error. When shocking, that could make or break your success rate. Can you locate any of the pool build specifications? I'd call the county or city permit office and request the records of the build if you can't get that information from the bank or previous owner's records.

Since time is a concern, you'll also want to go and purchase a LOT of bleach or liquid chlorine (from pool store, no powders though). Large pools with this kind of issue are recommended to start with a 20 gallon supply at first. You may very well need more than that as well but it's a good start.

Also, tell us what kind of test kit you own, if any. To fix your pool a good test kit is essential, and if you don't have a FAS-DPD kit on hand consider ordering one right away. TFTestkits.net has the best value around, hands down. And shipping is super fast.

Cleaning this pool will take time, and devotion for a week or two, perhaps even three... but it's possible to do it fast with diligence and precisely following the instructions in Pool School (upper right of this page, white button). The pool could be ready for the party in time, or at least very close and swimable (if you can see the bottom but very dangerous if you can't see. Do not let kids swim if it's not clear) but you will need to start NOW and hit it as hard as you possibly can.

I would employ the whole family with this task, as you are also planning a girl party which also takes time. If they want to swim, everyone should be involved in helping it happen. Plus, after you're done your whole family can take pride in knowing they fixed it, and they will likely be more inclined to help you maintain it.
 
lightingguy said:
In order to do this right we'll need a full set of test results - especially CYA

FC - Free Chlorine
CC - Total Chlorine
CYA- Cyanuric Acid (sold as stabilizer/conditioner)
CH- Calcium Hardness
TA- Total Alkalinity
PH- PH - pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution.
Click to expand...

The tablets add Cyanuric Acid (CYA). Don't use those any more till you know what your current CYA level is. If it's high, it will just make clearing the pool more difficult as it'll take more chlorine than if at a lower level. Once we know this number we can help you find out how much chlorine (bleach) to add to the pool to get it to the correct shock level.

Be prepared to test your water hourly for a day or two, but this frequency will diminish as you shock. The shock process (not a product that the pool store sells) requires you to maintain chlorine at shock level. You will be adding bleach hourly at first.

Read pool school up there to the upper right. The swamp to oasis link http://www.troublefreepool.com/turning-your-green-swamp-back-into-a-sparkling-oasis-t4147.html within the algae section will help you understand what needs to be done. The pool chemistry section is also an essential read.
 
Got it. Those 3" tablets are called Trichlor - a mix between chlorine and CYA. The reason I asked is that CYA acts as a buffer to chlorine - it shields it from being used up too quickly by the sun. When CYA levels get very high chlorine can become ineffective (too much "shielding" as it were). Continued use of Trichlor can result in very very high cya levels.

There is a lot of information in Pool School (button on the upper right of this page) to help you through the definitions, shocking process, etc.

If you take your water to a pool store they can test it for you. Dont buy anything (unless they have 12% liquid chlorine for $2.99 a gallon or similar price) - just report the numbers. Dont buy powdered shock - it either contains CYA or Calcium, neither of which you want being in AZ.

Bottom line - we can assume your CYA levels are very high indeed. This will make it very hard to shock the pool. You also do not have a proper test kit - which will make it difficult as well.

The "simple" advice is you need to bring the chlorine level up in your pool quite significantly and KEEP IT THERE until ALL of the algae is dead and cleared. For us to help you more specifically we need to know how large your pool is and a full set of test results.

EDIT - you guys are fast!
 
Yes, I mean bleach. Straight regular off the laundry shelf unscented nothing special 6% sodium hypochlorite... Bleach.

Pool stores sell liquid chlorine in 10% and 12% which can sometimes be a little cheaper than bleach and slightly easier to haul around (20 bottles at a time can be a pain to lug out to the pool) but a 128oz bottle of great value 6% bleach at walmart is $2.60. Cheap enough for most.

The basic 5 test kit shown in their catalog only tests for "chlorine" (doesn't say total or free, just chlorine), PH, and Total Alkalinity (TA). It is missing CYA, CH, and the VERY ESSENTIAL Total and Free Chlorine tests. It's not going to be sufficient for this process unfortunately.
 
If you have time to dedicate to the clearing/shocking process it will work out for you......but if I were in this situation and I had to be sure I was ready by Aug 6th, I would do a partial drain and start fresh using the knowledge you gain by reading pool school.
 
Shane1 said:
If you have time to dedicate to the clearing/shocking process it will work out for you......but if I were in this situation and I had to be sure I was ready by Aug 6th, I would do a partial drain and start fresh using the knowledge you gain by reading pool school.
Click to expand...

True... by draining you should be able to cut the time needed to do this somewhere near the percentage of water you drain. Unless the fill water is from a well with metals, which could pose additional issues (which are solvable).
 

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To vacuum to waste you put the filter valve on waste and vacuum. The water will go out the waste line instead of returning to the pool. Put your hose on in the pool before you start as you willbe losing water the whole time you vacuum. This way you won't be putting all the junk off the bottom into your filter. The pump must be off to change the valve setting.
 
Dalandlord said:
To vacuum to waste you put the filter valve on waste and vacuum. The water will go out the waste line instead of returning to the pool. Put your hose on in the pool before you start as you willbe losing water the whole time you vacuum. This way you won't be putting all the junk off the bottom into your filter. The pump must be off to change the valve setting.
Click to expand...

Hmm, this sounds like a great idea. I think I'll give it a try tomorrow night because I want to give the chlorine bomb I just planted in my pool tonight to have some time to work its magic.

I'll post an updated pic in the morning, Arizona time. :-D
 
So I visited Home Depot tonight, purchased 20 gallons of liquid chlorine, and dumped every gallon into my pool. While pouring I felt a sense of relief because I can't imagine anything living and prospering in my pool after the ignition of that chlorine bomb.

Incidentally, when I measured my chlorine level prior to the 20 gallons, my test kit produced a yellow reading that was off the chart, literally. It was a very strong - for lack of a better word - yellow color. I assume that's good, correct?

PH level measured a 7.6

Alkalinity measured a 90.

Unfortunately, my test kit isn't as comprehensive as most used by you all.

I used the pool calculator tonight and my pool holds 33,000 gallons.

I'll post progress - hopefully - pics tomorrow morning.
 
A high quality test kit such as a Taylor k2006 or a TF 100 is essential for completing the shock process for your pool. A one time "chlorine bomb" will not necessarily kill off all the algae. Chlorine is consumed very quickly when fighting an algae bloom such as the one you are dealing with now. You need to know your CYA level so you can calculate what the shock level is for your pool and keep it at shock level until you pass the overnight test. That may take a couple of days of frequent chlorine additions. If you use too little chlorine you will not completely kill the algae and clearing the pool will take much longer. If you use too much chlorine you risk loosing more chlorine to the sun than fighting algae and fade damage to the surface of the pool.
Please read through defeating algae and
how to shock your pool for more information on the shock process.
 
Just dumping in 20 gallons isn't exactly the way to go - but based on the size of your pool you've raised the FC count by somewhere between 35ppm and 75ppm depending on the strength of the chlorine. (6%, 10%, 12%)

Since we dont know your CYA number we can't tell you if this is slightly too much - or WAY too much. There is just no way to say.

Now that you are here - keep the pump running 24/7 and clean the filter as needed. (have you cleaned the filter since the storm?) Brushing and vacuuming will help as well.

You want to maintain this chlorine level for several days to kill off and oxidize as much as possible - so smaller frequent additions chlorine are in order.
 
Here are the morning pics. PH was a little high this morning so added muriatic acid. Chlorine remains at a shock level and didn't see any difference in the color reading. I was actually very happy with the progress over the past 10 hours.
 

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